I am approaching the final days before the big cut-up #6. I was beyond touched by how many people responded to my request to send in “tough” songs to prepare me for Tuesday’s surgery. The play list that I created is a testament to the amazingly diverse group of friends that I have…I was rocking out to everything from 80’s rock (Metallica) to Hip Hop (LL Cool J and Heavy). And who would have thought that I can tolerate some country once in a while?

I picked a selection of the songs and made a “physical tough” playlist for you to copy if you’d like. There’s something in here for every musical taste and I guarantee that you will get a great sweat! Sorry if your song was not chosen, I was trying to narrow it down to a “top 30”. Here goes…

1. Hold Back the Rain - Duran Duran 
2. Fighter – Christina Aguilera
3. Not Afraid – Eminem
4. Alive - Goldfrapp 
5. Sunshine (Georgie Anthem Radio) – Georgie Porgie
6. Let it Rock – Kevin Rudolf
7. Jump (Uncle Funk Remix) - Madonna
8. Bizarre Love Triangle – New Order
9. Tubthumping – Chumbawamba
10. The Rising – Bruce Springstein
11. Stronger – Britney Spears
12. Gonna Fly Now/Theme from Rocky – Bill Conti
13. Just Fine – Mary J. Blige
14. Supergirl – Saving Jane
15. Keep Pushin’ – Reo Speedwagon
16. Invincible – Pat Benatar
17. You Get What You Give – New Radicals
18. Ali n the Jungle – The Hours
19. Breathe – The Prodigy
20. Crazy – Seal
21. Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
22. Get Back up – tobyMac
23. Dreams – Van Halen
24. Breathe Life – Radboy Vocal House
25. Lay Down – 10 Monkeys featuring Abigail
26. Sanctify Yourself – Simple Minds
27. Who Knew – P!nk
28. Don’t Change – INXS
29. Boom – POD
30. Everything’s Coming up Kurt – Glee Soundtrack 

Next week when I am recovering, I promise to send another playlist of “mental tough” songs…they may not make you sweat but they are inspiring. I will listen to those before I go in to the OR.

Everyone always asks me what I do in the few days leading up to surgery so I decided to make a video to share with everyone.

Basically, I eat and exercise a ton knowing that I won’t be doing either for a long, long time! I had a great cycling class today with Wil…so sad that it will be my last for the next 4-6 weeks. He dedicated the class to me and told everyone, “If Jen can do it, you better not complain!” He then proceeded to kick ALL of our butts. He played a song for me called Facing a Miracle from Taylor Dayne. Very inspiring.

For the past two days I have also totally pigged out knowing that the pounds will be coming off soon enough. As of Sunday night, I am not able to eat anything solid until Tuesday surgery. And if history is any indication, I will likely not be eating or drinking anything for 5+ days. So, I hope Lauren (my nutritionist) and Gustavo (my trainer) are not reading this but what follows is a list of how I gorged myself over the past 48 hours!

• A chocolate glazed doughnut from one of the corner street vendors (I always wondered who ever eats those?)
• A good part of a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice-cream (who am I kidding? I ate the whole thing!)
• A Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip cookie (the best in the world…for those who are familiar with the bakery, the size of 1 cookie is roughly equivalent to eating 4 cookies)
• A huge portion of french fries (don’t remember the last time I ate those)
• Half of a cheeseburger (very proud of my restraint at stopping half-way through)
• Some gummy bears, worms, peaches, sharks, cars and frogs

I think it’s safe to say that as I write this, I am really not interested in eating for at least another 5 days!

I wanted to end this blog entry by expressing a sincere THANK YOU to everyone who sent me a picture that inspires them/their family to hang in my hospital wall. My mom is assigned to decorating my wall while I am recovering and thanks to the hundreds of pictures we received, she will be very busy (and I will have a really beautiful wall that is sure to make me smile and heal in no time!).

If you’d still like to send me a picture, just do it by Monday afternoon and I will be sure to print it out. Dave will post an update to let you know how surgery went and hopefully I will be back in no time (relatively speaking).

Please think good thoughts on Tuesday AM!

Some inspiring country lyrics from Bomshel's Fight Like A Girl (who would have known I would like, no less tolerate country music?) 

Hold your head high.

Don’t ever let ‘em define the light in your eyes.

Love yourself, give them Hell.

You can take on this world.

You just stand and be strong and then fight like a girl.

Oh with style and grace, kick ass and take names.